Lessons From Experience: Targeting the Museum Market
Introduction
The story that you are about to read is from actual events that occurred in
the field. Its purpose is to provide you with a real-world example from a
seasoned professional in the business world.
Targeting the Museum Market
All Star Art Museum is a small for-profit art museum in the center of a small
beach town on the East shore. In existence for more than a decade, the
museum has enjoyed a profitable few years. The museum is credited with
exhibiting the work of local and well-known fabric artists year-round.
The museum has a formal communication media plan that uses best practices
to keep the museum’s brand in the hearts and minds of existing and future
visitors. The word-of-mouth opportunities through social media have been
quite successful, too.
The governing board and the new museum executive director recently
suggested that the museum work on a more formal marketing plan to boost
visits and revenue during the next few years. One suggestion has been to
implement a strong branding campaign that will help build museum visibility
both locally and regionally.
The only viable choice is to create an effective integrated marketing
communications plan, combining new and traditional media. Customer
demographics and psychographics are important to help determine who the
museum wants to reach. Currently, data shows that most of the visitors are
seniors, aged 55 and above. The museum wants to expand the market by
reaching new visitors in the Generation X and Millennial demographic
segments.
An effective print campaign has been successful in bringing notoriety to the
museum, reaching the senior demographic. The missing link seems to be with
the younger customer set. An examination of social and sharing media has
been brought to the museum marketing team’s attention. By focusing on
social and sharing media, the museum hopes to appeal to a younger
demographic.
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Lessons From Experience: Targeting the Museum Market
It is important to take the following away from this scenario:
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Today’s competitive marketplace should be considered when creating
publicity campaigns to reach an organization’s desired customer
demographic.
Although traditional media are an important component of any
branding campaign, the power of new media (including social and
sharing media) cannot be underestimated.
When looking at the desired customer demographic, not only is the
branding message important, but the communication platform must be
considered when delivering the message to the target audience.